Verona Strauss.comjust because life is fun! …

Flower Merringue

Recently I have started to write a book which is all about cats. I write a few pages about one cat and then I move on to another one.

My first one is about Flower Merringue.

Flower Merringue

Hi, I’m Flower Merringue, did you see the fabulous drawing starring me?

I am a high spirited cat, full of love and bravery. My favourite food is whipped cream and biscuits. Yum!

I love to climb trees and laze in the sun - peace a quiet is the best.

Here is my baked bird recipe:

You need a freshly killed bird, a catmint leaf, an oven, a plate and some butter.

First cut open the bird and bake it in the oven for 20 minutes. Take out and slide onto plate.

Add a lump of butter and leave to cool. When cooled, stick the cat mint leaf in and enjoy!

My favourite friend is Suki, she’s …. well never mind about that, let’s hear a bit more about me, eh? I am black with white paws, nose and whiskers - my whiskers are the longest in cattery town.

Next time you’ll hear about Suki.

For Yule, I bought Verona a book. She loves reading, but most of all, she still loves being told stories or being read to.

I must admit, since we read ‘Hope and the magic martian’ I’ve not read much to her. Many of the books she has don’t appeal to me, and they need to excite me if I’m going to put my energy into reading for her!

The book I bought was “The eight year old legend book” by Isabel Wyatt. It is a series of short stories which are based upon tales told by the Buddha, 2500 years ago.

It’s full of wise sages, Kings, princes, faithful elephants and cunning monkeys. Each story tells of an adventure set in a lush landscape and shows how wisdom and selflessness always triumph over greed and selfishness. I guess it’s the step up from good vs evil.

It is called the eight year old legend book because it focuses on the topics that are pertinent to children of this age group. Verona has been struggling with some issues recently, and these tales focus on overcoming fears by using your own wisdom to figure things out.

We’ve been reading one story from the book every night before bed and it’s become a favourite part of our day again; it’s lovely to sit infront of the fire together, connecting with stories and being transported to other lands and times.

Today I’ve been very busy with Mum and Dad, organising my 2009 gallery!

I’ve got 42 of my best pictures for you to see. Click here! It’s better if you scan through them yourself, because the slideshow doesn’t work properly and Mum can’t work out how to take it off at the moment.

It’s hard to choose favourites, but here is one of mine. It’s a tree in autumn. I painted the background with watercolours and then used a straw to blow black ink over the background to make the tree outline:

Mummy wanted to choose 3 favourites, but in the end she chose this one. She likes my pictures with people on because she says I’m good at drawing all sort of legs, but she likes this one too because it looks so abstract. I did this in poster paints on black paper:

Daddy found it hard to choose as well. In the end he went for this one because he loves the dancing cat on it: